मैं जिन्दगी का साथ निभाता चला गया

One of my professors feels very sorry when he sees that the ideal of Bengal has lowered down from Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, Ravindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray to Sourav Ganguly. I too feel sorry, when I hear that almost seventy percent of auto rickshaws on the streets of Kolkata carry the slogan ‘Mithun aur Sourav, Bengal ka gaurav’, on their outer wall. Auto rickshaw drivers belong to the common mass of Bengal. It simply assures the fact that Sourav Ganguly is not simply a hero for them but the ideal of common mass.
There has been a time when Bengali commoners had followed Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The courageous man, who dared to go against the established orthodox mindset of Indian society and introduced Brahmo Samaj. There had been also a time when they followed Swami Vivekanand. The man, who revived the concept of Hinduism and broke the pre-occupied concept about India and told the world, we are as progressive as the western world. There was again a time when Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore was the ideal person of Bengal. The man, who invented Ravindra Sangeet; the whole world acknowledged him for his literary standard and he also dared to advocate internationalism when the entire India was plunged into the nationalist movement.
Then, there was a time when Bengal had a hero and ideal namely Satyajit Ray. Undoubtedly, a great humanist filmmaker, who made world feel, the presence of Indian cinema on international stage and enriched the cinematic arts and tactics of the world. Ray’s later films are not as good as earlier one and this might be a coincidence that the choice of Bengal also started to decline at the same time. This was the time when Bengali classicism started to dilute.
Now, let us talk about Sourav Ganguly, he is the most successful captain of Indian cricket. He took over the captaincy of Indian cricket from Azharuddin just after the match fixing scandal, and led the team very well up to the final of World Cup 2003. Geoffrey Boycott bestowed him ‘God of off side’ but at the later stage of his career when ‘man’ stroke strategically, Ganguly had no way out. The Royal Bengal Tiger was scared of grass on the pitch and pretended being ill in one of the matches at Nagpur. This was the incident after that he was not worthy of leading Indian side. Selector of Indian cricket had no choice left but to prepare a team without Ganguly. Though, he made a strong comeback but till then Indian cricket had new strategies of playing and he was not accepted. In spite of his good performances he had to leave Indian squad.
After retirement from international class he took part in the Indian Premier League for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Out of three in two seasons he did captaincy but the team lost badly. As a result he lost his credibility among the franchisees of IPL and no body found him fit for the fourth season.
This was the story of a man, who really gathered a great mass support in and around Bengal. Previously, it was because of his good ability to play the game and at later stage only for sympathy. He was not found fit for IPL-4 season, not saleable at all; it was quite simple, but after that an outrage broke out in Kolkata. Now-a-days the whole Bengal is shouting for Sourav Ganguly, a man who did only what the world has already done, nothing innovative, nothing extraordinary.
He can’t be in the line of legacy of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray.